As North Carolina gets ready to vote to ban both gay marriage and civil unions, there is new evidence that support for gay marriage continues to rapidly increase — but that only means that, as of now, roughly half of Americans support it.

The graphic above is from a recent Gallup poll (an NBC News/WSJ poll raked in similar numbers). Intriguingly for Democrats, almost 60 percent of independents support it — a sign that “freedom to marry,” as progressives now call it, is not just a base-rallying issue but possibly a position that could help swing elections.